Christian youth! is it possible to read the passage just cited, without emotion? How noble, generous, and philanthropic is the spirit of it? Having returned from the field of evangelical conflict, where he had bravely fought upwards of half a lifetime, he reported the mighty works which God by his hands had done among the Gentiles, and concluded the wondrous recital with these solemn declarations and interrogatories. His weighty words are strongly entitled to the deep meditation of all classes of Christians, but especially of the sons of the aristocracy, that class to whom the martyred man more particularly directed them. To the bulk even of the good, the idea of the son of a British peer going forth as a missionary is as preposterous and as ridiculous as any that can well be imagined. But men should stop, pause, and ask themselves, Why? Is it beneath the son of a peer to report what it was not beneath the Son of God to perform? The fact which I allude to, only shows how little the public mind is yet imbued with the Spirit of God! No work is beneath the sons of our nobles, where there is the slightest chance of obtaining gold, power, or glory! Such delusions, however, will have an end. The tide of youthful vigour, which, from the higher classes of Great Britain, has for so many ages been profusely streaming into her armies and navies, and thereby diffused over the globe for purposes of war, conquest, and the conservation of empire, shall not be thus destroyed for ever! It will one day be turned into a new channel, and spread abroad for far different and infinitely nobler objects. The unmeasured wealth and accomplished life, which have hitherto been so ingloriously wasted at home, or fruitlessly, if not destructively, for mankind and themselves, consumed in foreign climes, and which, under Christian influence, had been enough to enlighten the universal family of man, will yet be consecrated to celestial

service, and in divers ways employed to diffuse knowledge and happiness among all nations!

The valedictory declarations of Mr. Williams comprise great principles, which deserve to be specified, illustrated, and enforced, till thoroughly appreciated by the public mind. They ought to be pondered by all believers, but more especially by Christian youths, and by day-school teachers. It is absolutely necessary that those principles should be clearly understood and deeply felt, inasmuch as they enter vitally into the business of the world's emancipation from sin, and the establishment of the kingdom of God. These principles are accordingly the basis of this book: they will be discussed in the following pages. The great question to be raised, is the comparative claims of the missionary character, and the comparative value of a life spent in the field of missions. The discussion of this question will involve the subject of moral greatness; for I hope to establish the principle that moral greatness is entitled to the first distinction, and that such greatness attains its highest elevation only in the missionary character. As Mr. Williams is a fit and proper representative of the missionary brotherhood, of which he formed so distinguished a member, I shall proceed, in his name, to try the question. The Martyr of Erromanga, however, is not singled out as the object of individual idolatry, but simply as furnishing, by his tragical death, a suitable occasion; and in his once beloved person, and still admired character, an appropriate subject. Whatever may be awarded, therefore, to that great missionary, as the representative of his brethren, in every clime, must, according to their respective measures of individual desert, be divided among the whole of the beloved and venerated body.

My position relative to the superiority of moral greatness to every other kind of greatness, will necessarily lead

to comparison and argument; for although, in Britain, there are, happily, not a few who yield a cordial assent to that position, yet greater, by a thousand-fold, are the multitudes who listen to it only with disgust and derision. I shall, therefore, endeavour to sift the clams of their respective views, and duly to estimate them, taking the Martyr of Erromanga as the subject of comparison, and the standard of reference.

LETTER II.

TO THE TEACHERS OF SUNDAY-SCHOOLS.

ON THE SUCCESS OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS TO SUBVERT IDOLATRY, AND TO INTRODUCE THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUE GOD.

HONOURED labourers in the Lord's vineyard! next to the teachers of day-schools, you possess the power of promoting the cause of missions. The moral training of the most important portion of the rising race is largely in your hands. The youthful heart, unhardened, and unpreoccupied, is subjected to your influence; and, while you pour into it the lessons of gospel knowledge, with that knowledge you may daily blend the subject of Christian missions. You may show that the claims of the heathen are, in another view, the claims of Christ, and that his glory and kingdom are inseparably bound up with their conversion and salvation. You may realise the honour and felicity of rearing a generation of missionary supporters and advocates, such as the world has not yet seen. You may deeply engrave upon the youthful breast the doctrine that, next to the duty of personally receiving the truth, is the duty of diffusing it. In furtherance of this great work, it is indispensable that your own minds should be most amply stored with the literature of missions. To this end you.

will do well to read, with the utmost care, all the missionary biography to which you can have access,—all the missionary history that has appeared-missionary reports→ periodical accounts, and general works upon the subject. For purposes of Scripture illustration, of the most striking and appropriate character, apart from the spirit of missions, these sources will yield you an inexhaustible supply. They will, indeed, render you more service than all commentaries and critical apparatus, and all the encyclopædias united. This is one of the best methods of training a missionary church. To the following illustrations of the great truth that the gospel is "the power of God unto salvation," I now beg your serious attention.

The isles of the South present peculiar advantages for the correct estimate and profitable contemplation of man's fallen condition. Their surfaces are small, and their population is limited, as compared with the great continents of the earth-circumstances singularly favourable to accurate views and deep impressions. The mind feels itself capable of dealing more effectively with the question under these small insular exhibitions, than on the expanded empires of the East. Idolatry, in Polynesia, may be viewed either as a crime or as a calamity—the latter being at once the fruit and the punishment of the former. In the light of a calamity it is more palpable and impressive to the common observer, than in that of a crime, since it is spread as a covering over the face of the Pacific Ocean, dyed in colours of the darkest hue, and traced in all possible or imaginable forms of wretchedness. The original state of Polynesian society, considered as the result of idolatry, displayed it as the most heinous enormity conceivable or practicable by In the economy of Providence, the measure of penal infliction never exceeds that of moral desert; and the former may, therefore, be considered as the measure of the latter. Now, if we take an island of the South Seas,

man.